In December, Sarah Chavez became the first doctoral candidate in the department to earn a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences with a concentration in health outcomes and implementation science.
In October, Chavez successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “Evaluating the Quality of Type 2 Diabetes Mobile Apps: The Development, Testing, and Dissemination of an Evidence-Based Scoring Instrument for Mobile Health Applications,” which focused on evaluating mobile apps in the management of diabetes. In 2017, she served as first author (with François Modave, Ph.D., as senior author) of “Mobile Apps for the Management of Diabetes,” published in Diabetes Care.
While completing the coursework for her doctoral degree, Chavez worked full time as a research coordinator III for the Institute for Child Health Policy (ICHP) External Quality Review Organization (EQRO) project. EQRO staff provide oversight of state Medicaid managed care programs, ensuring that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) federal regulations are followed to evaluate the quality, timeliness, and access to health care for Medicaid recipients in Texas and Florida. She coordinates performance improvement project (PIP) evaluations and technical reports for the EQRO’s Quality Improvement and Implementation Science team.
Yi Guo, Ph.D., and François Modave, Ph.D., served as Chavez’ dissertation chair and co-chair.
Congratulations, Dr. Chavez!